1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to data communication, and more particularly, but not necessarily entirely, to over-the-air or through-the-air communication of listing content generated using a wireless mobile device.
2. Description of Related Art
E-commerce, that is, commercial transactions consummated through electronic communication (e.g., via the World Wide Web (WWW)), is a rapidly expanding segment of the global economy. One type of e-commerce allows sellers to offer items for sale to potential buyers using websites operated by third-parties. These third-party websites may include auction-type websites and classified-type websites. The operators of these websites typically charge the seller a fee for posting listings on their websites. In a typical e-commerce transaction involving one of these types of websites, a buyer, accessing the website from a remote computer, searches listings on the websites and decides on an item that he or she is interested in purchasing. When a desired item is found in a listing, the buyer may then purchase the desired item from the seller pursuant to the seller's terms indicated in the listing.
Prior to creating a listing for posting an e-commerce website, a seller may be first required to establish a seller's account with the desired e-commerce website through a one-time registration process. This registration process may require that the seller provide information to verify the seller's identity and contact information. Once the seller's identity has been confirmed, the registration process may then require that the seller select the method by which the seller intends to pay any fees charged by the e-commerce website and the methods by which buyers may pay for items purchased from the seller.
Once a seller has completed the registration process, the e-commerce website may allow the seller to create listings through an online and interactive listing process displayed on a web browser of the seller's own computer. The online and interactive listing process may facilitate the creation of a listing by guiding the seller step-by-step through the listing creation process. That is, the interactive process may allow a seller to create a listing by providing the necessary discrete data components that form listing content step-by-step until a completed listing has been formed and posted.
For example, to create a listing the seller may first be required to login to his or her seller's account with the e-commerce website from the seller's computer. After a seller has successfully logged in, the e-commerce website may provide a seller with an interface displayed in the seller's web browser that allows the seller to select the option to create a new listing under the seller's account using the online and interactive process.
Once initiated, the online and interactive process may first prompt the seller to select a product category for the new listing. This may be accomplished by allowing the seller to select a product category by searching, browsing or using a previous product category selection. The association of a product category with the listing will allow buyers to more easily locate the listing. Once a product category has been selected for the listing, the online and interactive process may then prompt the seller to enter descriptive information, such as a listing title and a detailed description of the product. The online and interactive process may also prompt the seller to enter the appropriate pricing information based on the selling format, such as sales price, reserve price, etc., as well as a duration of the listing. The online and interactive process may also require that the seller choose a method of accepted payment as well has provide shipping information. The seller may also be prompted to provide return policy information.
Once a seller has entered all the necessary textual information for a listing, the online and interactive process may then prompt the seller to upload any images related to the product in the listing using a file uploader service hosted by the e-commerce website. The file uploader service allows the seller to add or upload digital images for display with the new listing. To initiate the file uploader service, the seller typically clicks on an “Add Pictures” button. The file uploader service will then prompt the seller to browse the file directory of his or her own computer and select the images desired to be included in the listing. Of course, it is incumbent upon the seller to have previously uploaded the images from a digital camera.
Once the appropriate file directory is located, the seller may then manually select one or more images from the file directory for uploading. When the images have been selected and finalized, the file uploader service may upload the images to the e-commerce website from the memory of the seller's computer. When the seller has entered and uploaded all of the desired discrete data components that from listing content for a single listing, the online and interactive process may provide the seller with the option to preview a listing with the listing content. This preview option will allow the seller to edit the listing content if any changes are desired prior to making it available on a network.
Once deemed acceptable by the seller, the online and interactive process will prompt the seller to actually post the listing content “live” such that it is accessible to buyers via the e-commerce website. After new listing content has been posted, the online and interactive process may prompt the seller to create another listing through the interactive process, if desired. When finished, a seller may terminate the online and interactive process for creating listings by logging out of the seller's account with the e-commerce website.
While the above process is beneficial to some sellers in some situations, the online and interactive process described above for creating listings may actually discourage some sellers from posting listings on e-commerce websites in some situations. In particular, the online and interactive process currently being utilized by e-commerce websites to create listings is overly time consuming and inefficient, especially when multiple listings need to be created and posted. The foremost drawbacks to the currently available online and interactive processes for creating listings appears to be the piecemeal manner in which the listings are created and the need to manually associate and upload images using a file uploader service.
Further drawbacks of the currently available online and interactive processes for creating listings include requiring sellers to manually login to e-commerce websites to post listing content. It would therefore be an improvement over the currently available online and interactive processes for creating listings to provide a more efficient method, system, and program product for sellers to easily and quickly post listing content by eliminating some of the manual steps previously required.
The prior art is thus characterized by several disadvantages that are addressed by the present invention. The present invention minimizes, and in some aspects eliminates, the above-mentioned failures and other problems by utilizing the methods and structural features described herein. The features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description that follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by the practice of the invention without undue experimentation. The features and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.